Though Franco is so busy, Deadline says that he's "certainly in discussion" and is circling the role. Traynor was Lovelace's husband and a pornographer when she starred in her biggest -- and most infamous -- hit, the 1972 porn blockbuster "Deep Throat." After she quit the business, she divorced Traynor and accused him of coercing her into prostitution and pornography through bullying, beatings and hypnotism.

It's not quite clear what part of this twisted relationship Epstein and Friedman's film will follow, but it's certainly not the only dark film Franco is looking at. He is attached to the true-crime thriller "The Iceman" and the biography of poet Hart Crane called "The Broken Tower," and he's filming the drama "Maladies" at the moment. He's also planning on directing adaptations of William Faulker's "As I Lay Dying" and Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian."

Do you think Franco is taking on too much, or would you like to see him star in "Lovelace"?